Add a chat button to your website

A chat widget is a small chat button on your website. A visitor clicks it and starts a conversation with you. You set it up under Website chat in the menu (the page is called Chat widgets).

Create a widget

1. Open Website chat in the menu.
2. Click New widget (or Create your first widget if you have none).
3. Type a Name. Only you see it, for example “Main website widget”.
4. Change the settings below if you wish.
5. Click Create widget.

The settings

• Button colour and Position (bottom right or bottom left).
• Greeting message — the first thing the visitor reads.
• WhatsApp prefill message — the text that WhatsApp fills in when the visitor clicks “Continue on WhatsApp”. If you leave it empty, the greeting is used.
• Header title and Header subtitle — the lines at the top of the chat box.
• Call-to-action button label — the words on the main button.
• Avatar URL — an optional picture. Paste the web address of an image.
• Channels — choose WhatsApp, SMS, Live Chat, or more than one. You must pick at least one.
• Active — when ticked, the widget shows on your site.

If you choose Live Chat

A Live chat settings box appears with these options:

• Ask before chat starts — ask the visitor for their name, email or phone first. For each one you can mark it required.
• Ask for a rating after the chat — you can write your own question.
• Require phone verification before live chat (OTP) — the visitor must confirm their phone number with a code. It is off by default.
• Alert an agent if a visitor waits too long — choose how many minutes to wait, whether to notify by WhatsApp or SMS, and which team members to notify. Team members need a phone number to be notified.

The text in the greeting can use *bold* and _italic_, and web addresses become links.

Copy the embed code

1. On the widget’s card, click Embed.
2. Click Copy code.

Paste it on your website

Paste the code inside the <body> part of every page where you want the button, just before the closing </body> tag. If you use a website builder, look for a box called “custom code”, “footer code” or “header and footer scripts”, and paste it there. If you are not sure, send the code to the person who looks after your website.

Where the chats arrive

When a visitor uses the button, the conversation lands in your WaSMS inbox. Open Chats to answer. See Answer your chats. Your dashboard also shows how many times the button was shown and how many times it was clicked. See Your dashboard, explained.

Change, turn off or delete

• Click Edit on a widget’s card to change its settings.
• Click the Active badge to turn the widget off. It then shows Disabled. Click it again to turn it back on.
• Click the bin icon to delete it. This cannot be undone.